Explained: The Controversial Bill That Would Allow Jewish-only Communities in Israel

Jul 10, 2018 at 12:00 AM

Right-wing politicians have spent half a decade trying to pass a ‘nation-state’ bill that would prioritize Israel’s Jewish nature over its democratic one. Even President Rivlin thinks the law could harm Jews worldwide.

This proposed nation-state bill would be a Basic Law, which means it would have constitutional-like status. Israel’s lack of a constitution has led to the creation of a series of such “Basic Laws,” which the courts are meant to recognize as articulating the underlying principles of the state.

However, due to internal wrangling over the wording of the law, the nation-state bill has enjoyed a legislative roller-coaster ride since its original conception back in 2013.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated repeatedly that the passage of such a law is one of his top priorities, and is hoping to get the bill passed before the Knesset breaks for its summer recess next week. Yet he has failed to achieve a consensus among the parties in his last two coalition governments, and Habayit Hayehudi and United Torah Judaism have both raised objections to parts of the latest version.

“Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and for the sake of creating a balance and resisting those who challenge, I am determined to advance my version of the nation-state law,” Netanyahu said in 2014, as various factions battled over different versions of the bill. “Over the years, a distinct imbalance has been created between the Jewish element and the democratic one. There is an imbalance between individual rights and national rights in Israel,” he added.

From the outset, human rights organizations and political figures on the left have decried the proposed law as antidemocratic, arguing that even in its mildest version, it legitimizes giving Jews and the Jewish religion preferential treatment and denying full and equal rights to the country’s non-Jewish citizens.

Its harshest critics, meanwhile, have said the law prepares the legal ground for a one-state solution and the annexation of the West Bank.

In its the most recent version, figures ranging from left-wing activists to the Israeli president have joined the battle against preventing its passage in its current form.

The clause that has upset them most would explicitly allow the establishment of communities that are segregated by religion or nationality, giving discrimination an official stamp of approval. The clause in the bill declares that “the state can allow a community composed of people of the same faith or nationality to maintain an exclusive community.”

Some fear that enshrining this principle in law could not only lead to discrimination against Arabs and other non-Jews, but could also be interpreted as permitting discrimination against groups within the Jewish population.

The Knesset’s legal adviser, Eyal Yinon, and Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri have both also come out against the clause, with Nizri explaining that the law would enshrine “personal discrimination against a citizen based only on his nationality.” And Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit said “there is no place for such a clause in its present form.”

Eyal Zandberg from the Attorney General’s Office has said the clause “is blatant discrimination” and that “this means the residents selection committee can hang up a sign saying ‘No entry to non-Jews.’”

There are other controversial clauses in the proposed law that are also proving problematic: Hebrew will be the official language of the state, with the status of Arabic being reduced from an “official” to “special” language. Another clause would instruct judges to look for precedents from Jewish legal rulings in instances where Israeli law offers no guidance.

60 Years After the UN Partition Plan

Launch of the "Nakba-60 Campaign" - a Global Campaign for the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

"We had a country, but they they came and stole our country", members of the old generation of Palestinian refugees from towns and villages in what is now Israel summarize what happened between 1947 - 1949, and they call it the "Nakba" (catastrophe). "Look, they are stealing our country", say Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank today. They point at Israel's Wall, roads, military checkpoints and Jewish colonies which deprive them of access to some 40 percent of the land and cause more displacement. "This is our Nakba; the Nakba is ongoing", they say.

Today, 60 years after the UN Partition Plan, Palestinians and people of conscience worldwide launch a year-long campaign of public awareness-raising and education about the Nakba and Israel's discriminatory Apartheid-like regime over the Palestinian people in the 1967 OPT, Israel and in exile.